Mornings in Deltaville, VA

Today's picture is the sunrise from High Spirits in Deltaville, Va. We have decided to stay here for a couple of days to have several repairs made.

Today the riggers came and fixed the leaky port stay. Hopefully it will not leak on the navigator's desk area after tomorrow. We have to tighten up the bolts tomorrow. They wanted the bedding compound to sit for a day. When we did it in July, we tightened the bolts too quickly and squeezed the bedding compound before it had a chance to set up.

Also the stove people came and looked out the galley area and have ordered all the parts they need. We most likely will not get out of here until Sunday. So only a couple of days delay.



Spent some time today riding a bike around town. Thought I found a great dessert place called Moo's Sweet Shop but found out that they got out of sweets and now it is just a deli. Open for breakfast and lunch but no sweets. Not even sorbet, just plain ice cream. Think we are going there for breakfast tomorrow. We have been eating on the boat. Helps keep our expenses to a semi reasonable level.

One of the older ladies we have met has spent 13 years sailing around the world with her husband. One of leg of their voyage he became ill and she had to sail their boat around South Africa. Then she hired some professional crew and sailed from South Africa to the Caribbean.

That is about it for tonight. I started my inventory project where we will itemize all major items in the boat on a spreadsheet so we can find things when they are needed. The more detail we want, the bigger the job.


Joe

Projects for a Rainy Day

Well, as we spent some time here at the Deltaville Marina, waiting out the rain, we realized that a lot of people are having work done on their boats, so...., we put together our list, spoke with the boat repair department, and have come up with 3 projects for them to possibly work on. We have a meeting with Matt at nine o'clock in the morning for coffee and to get the bad news about the estimates. This marina has excellent ratings from cruisers on the work they do, and the cost per hour is lower than even the cost in Cleveland, so it may be best to go ahead with the work here.

#1- Our stove is fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG); however, CNG distributers are very difficult to find. There are none in the Chesapeake and maybe one in Florida. When we called the company that made our stove, they tell us the suppliers are listed on their website, but when you call the suppliers, they all have stopped supplying it. We have known that we need to convert to propane, which is available everywhere. Our original thought was to have it done in Florida while the boat sits over Christmas, but the yard here can do it in 2 days, so it looks like we will be here at least until the weekend.

#2- We rebedded all our chain plates this summer with a product recommended by our boat yard manager. Come to find out, it was the wrong product, and one chain plate has started leaking. The chain plate supports the stays which support the mast, so it is a very vulnerable part of a sailboat. To remove the old product and rebed with the appropriate product is necessary. Thus, we will probably have the boatyard tackle this.

#3 Our boat heater has been on the blitz. They can at least look at it, diagnose the problem and possibly fix it without having to send it back to the factory, which is what we were told before.

In the meantime, we spent the day by borrowing the loaner car to run some errands, moved the boat to the marina so they can work on it, met more interesting people in the boaters' lounge, and had Chuck and Pat for supper on our boat. Chuck and Pat are the couple that Joe mentioned that have been on their boat for 3 years and are getting a watermaker in preparation for cruising to Mexico and Honduras. We also chatted with an older woman, who has been on their boat for 13 years and circumnavigated the world. Quite impressive! Probably not in our cards, but very interesting to talk with.

Joy

Resting in Deltaville, VA

We motored sailed down from Reedsville, VA to Deltaville, VA this morning, took about 5 hours. It was a blustery day out on the Chesapeake, in fact as we went out a husband and wife on another boat was coming in and said it was too rough. In fact it turned out to be less than a medium size day on Lake Erie. High Spirits handled the 2-3 foot waves hitting on the port side quite nicely and when we turned to starboard, the waves were right behind and it was a very smooth ride.

The marina here has a great deal for people who anchor. For $10 per person per day you get to use the dinghy dock, the showers, laundry, a great lounge, free bicycles and the use of the courtesy car for a hour to go to the market, West Marine, or hardware store. Since there is a 60% chance of rain tomorrow, we may stay Wed and push back our arrival in Hampton to Saturday. We will plan on going to Yorktown to see the Battle Field that was the end of the American Revolution.

In the marina lounge we met another couple that have been sailing for 3.5 years and still going forward with more sailing. There are a treasure chest of information. In fact they sent us four spreadsheets that they had received from another couple when they started out. Spreadsheets deal with tracking provisions, supplies, and repair parts.

News Flash: Going to add a map to our blog as soon as I can do Google Maps, perhaps as early as tomorrow. Have had request from people as to where we have been.

Photo today is of a young couple we just met at sunset who are anchored next to us. She is from Scotland/England and has actually been on a Westerly Sealord over in Scotland. High Spirits is on the boat on the right.

I gave blood today the Red Cross who was having a blood drive down the street from the marina. We were talking to this cute cafe when I spotted the sign, so I gave after lunch. Joy is still getting over her cold so she had to pass.

Joe

Reedville and Point No Point

Don't you love that name- Point No Point! We passed it just north of the entrance to the Potomac River. The lighthouse is Point No Point Lighthouse! We are now in Virginia. Maryland only took 4 weeks plus!

Reedville is known for the smelly fish processing plant. It was known in the past as the Menhaden fishing capital of the US. The inedible fish is processed for its oil and as a fertilizer, but the fish population has been depleted over the years. You will recognize the oil as Omega 3 fatty acids. The odor as we passed by the plant was powerful and we were glad that the inviting coves for anchoring are not downwind from the plant.

We just had the police boat stop by, as I was typing, to let us know that our anchor light was not on. Glad they are on the lookout and protecting us. Whenever you anchor you have to have a light visible for 2 miles at night- most boats now, including us, have one at the top of the mast. When I was a child, sailing with my grandparents, we had a kerosene lantern that would be raised up on a line at night.

Tomorrow we are off the Deltaville, where we should have the afternoon for exploring! Only a morning sail and then another anchorage.

I had several pictures from today, but somehow I deleted all but one while transferring them from the camera to the computer!

Joy

Solomons Island, MD

Tonight is probably our last night in Maryland as tomorrow's stop is Reedville, VA. It is about 35 miles south of Solomon's Island.

We went to the best church so far on our trip today. Our Lady of the Star Sea; lots singing by the congregation, and a lot of people there for 9 am service. For lunch we went to an Italian restaurant and got to chat with the new owner. He bought it in April 2010. Actually he is on a lease for a couple of years. He was a chef in DC for the past 15 years or so and wanted to open his own place.

Solomon was a great place to visit. We got a marina rate of $1/foot and we able to rent a car at a decent rate to drive to see Jen. Tomorrow I have to return the car first thing in the morning and then we are off for Virginia. Hope to be in Norfolk and the start of the ICW by next Sunday.

We visited the Calvert Maritime Museum. A large part of the museum is dedicated to fossils as the Calvert Cliffs are loaded with fossils laid down over the last 100 million years or so. In fact there was a young lady, about 18, working on a fossil she found sticking out of the cliffs while taking a walk on her grandmother's property.

Joy went shopping today so now we have a new rechargeable lantern, new grill for the back of the boat, and new containers for the refrigerator. I have been told to keep out of the refrigerator as I do not put stuff back where " it belongs". Actually I am not that bad.

No photos today, forgot to take the camera to the Museum. I did spend the afternoon after the museum working on his bills, back emails, and a conference call at 4 pm regarding my fraternity at MIT. So we are keeping busy with life in general. Joy got to talk to her co worker Shirley this afternoon.

More tomorrow from Reedville

Joe

An Even Day

By now you know my track record for writing the blog on the even days- about half the time! Or maybe a third!

We left Jen, Mark, and the kids to return to the boat, after a run to Whole Foods with lunch for all of us and a trip to the hardware store in Silver Springs to buy a small electric heater for the boat. Jennifer seems to be feeling better after her scare at the hospital. Getting a call at 7am on Thursday from Jen in the ER was scary, but luckily we were not too far, could easily rent a car, and help out with the kids. Last night we stayed with Erin and Adam and they got to go to the movies to relax.

Back at Solomons, with a car until Monday morning, we are planning a movie tonight and then the Holiday Inn has a DJ tonight, which Joe is excited about! Me less so because I picked up a cold this week. I included a picture of Adam and Mark and 2 of our surroundings in Solomons Island. After a rainy Friday, the weekend is beautifully clear, crisp, and breezy. As the weather cools, it is a reminder that we need to keep pushing south, before the snow flies!

Joy

Back in Hyattsville, MD

Thursday morning we got a call that Jen was in the hospital in Silver Springs MD.

She had not been feeling well the past week and had a doctor's appointment for Thursday, but Wed evening she went to the Urgent Care facility and they sent her to the hospital. She is fine now. She ended up spending Wed night in observation, and was discharged on Thursday late evening.

Of course, we rented a car at 9 am on Thursday morning and drove to the hospital. We mostly took care of Erin for the day so Mark could take care of Adam and be with Jennifer. Thankfully
everything ended up okay.

Tomorrow, Sat, we will be returning to High Spirits to continue our trip on Monday. We can not return the car on Sat as Enterprise does not do pickups or drop offs on Sat. So we will drop it off early Monday morning, get a ride back to the boat and depart for Crisfield, MD. Crisfield is on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay, about a 7 hours trip. We may detour to another place on the western shore if they contact us about converting our stove from CNG to propane.

Enough excitement for the week. We ended up having a good time with the grand kids.

Joe